Automatic adjustment and control of laser systems

Lasers can be highly useful tools for experiments in several sciences. For example, lasers can be used as "optical tweezers" to manipulate the positions of small beads attached to strings of DNA in genetics experiments.

Such setups normally require a lot of manual tuning effort to function properly, and could benefit from automation. In this project, we would like to explore possibilities for making a computer controlled interface to motors tuning the laser system, and possibilities for applying machine learning algorithms to efficiently adjust mirrors to the right positions.

Laser setup at the University of Bielefeld, Germany

Possible tasks in the project:

Development of an open source and hardware mechatronic system with easily accessible interface for controlling a laser setup.

Development of and experiments with an automatic tuning component, using optimization algorithms.

The project will be a collaboration with Oslo University Hospital and possibly also with the University of Bielefeld.